Case competition
Encyclopedia
In a case competition, participants compete for the best solution to a business case study
under time pressure. Most often it is a competition at university level, but on occasions also held at other levels. The case competition is an event in which business teams deliver business presentations, competing against other teams in front of a team of judges. Teams display how quickly, thoroughly, and skillfully they can ingest a case, analyze it, and then present their conclusions and recommendations to a panel of judges. Case competitions vary greatly in the details, but they do have a standard format and purpose. The operative idea behind such competitions is to provide a standard case to competing teams with a given time limit and then to rate how well the teams respond.
There is, of course, no direct competition between teams; rather, each team is judged independently how well it handles the assigned case and presents its analysis and recommendations. There is usually a time limit and specific rules, with all teams operating under the same conditions. Competitions can be internal to a business school, or they can involve teams from several different schools. Sometimes there are several rounds of competition, with the final round typically judged by outside company executives.
The teams prepare a solution to the case, deliver a written report, assemble a presentation of their analysis and recommendations, and then deliver the timed presentation before a panel of judges, sometimes consisting of executives from the actual company in the case. The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is particularly good about this in its renowned Global Business Case Competition. Twelve to fourteen schools from around the world compete in this weeklong event. Its 2010 competition featured a case written especially for the competition on the Boeing Corporation; executives from Boeing acted as judges.
Some competitions introduce a twist, which makes the competition more interesting and more complicated. For instance, Ohio State University's CIBER in its annual Case Challenge creates teams from the pool of participants (i.e., members will be from different schools) instead of allowing the group of students from each school to compete as a team. In this case, once students are assigned to teams, there is a day of team-building exercises.
Additionally, formats may vary on a number of practical dimensions, e.g.:
Case study
A case study is an intensive analysis of an individual unit stressing developmental factors in relation to context. The case study is common in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or explanatory. The latter type is used to explore causation in order to find...
under time pressure. Most often it is a competition at university level, but on occasions also held at other levels. The case competition is an event in which business teams deliver business presentations, competing against other teams in front of a team of judges. Teams display how quickly, thoroughly, and skillfully they can ingest a case, analyze it, and then present their conclusions and recommendations to a panel of judges. Case competitions vary greatly in the details, but they do have a standard format and purpose. The operative idea behind such competitions is to provide a standard case to competing teams with a given time limit and then to rate how well the teams respond.
There is, of course, no direct competition between teams; rather, each team is judged independently how well it handles the assigned case and presents its analysis and recommendations. There is usually a time limit and specific rules, with all teams operating under the same conditions. Competitions can be internal to a business school, or they can involve teams from several different schools. Sometimes there are several rounds of competition, with the final round typically judged by outside company executives.
The teams prepare a solution to the case, deliver a written report, assemble a presentation of their analysis and recommendations, and then deliver the timed presentation before a panel of judges, sometimes consisting of executives from the actual company in the case. The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is particularly good about this in its renowned Global Business Case Competition. Twelve to fourteen schools from around the world compete in this weeklong event. Its 2010 competition featured a case written especially for the competition on the Boeing Corporation; executives from Boeing acted as judges.
Some competitions introduce a twist, which makes the competition more interesting and more complicated. For instance, Ohio State University's CIBER in its annual Case Challenge creates teams from the pool of participants (i.e., members will be from different schools) instead of allowing the group of students from each school to compete as a team. In this case, once students are assigned to teams, there is a day of team-building exercises.
Formats
The format of case competitions vary along a number of dimensions. Most notably, the following dimensions are often used to classify and compare competitions:- Host: Corporate versus educational institution
- Participant selection: By invitation versus by application
- Level: Undergraduate versus graduate (other levels also exist)
Additionally, formats may vary on a number of practical dimensions, e.g.:
- Case specificity (case written especially for the competition or not)
- Number of participating schools
- Organization (student-run, professional, etc.)
- Competition rules, e.g.:
- Available time (common format is 24 hours)
- Available material
- Possibility to interview experts (either "internal" from the competition or externals)
- Extra-curricular programme
Purpose
Case competitions are organized in order to improve analytic skills of students and/or to assess potential candidates for analysis based jobs.Invitational competitions
| Competition | Country | Type | Level | Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBS Case Competition | University | Undergraduate | 12 teams | |
| McGill Management International Case Competition | University | Undergraduate | 12 teams | |
| Citi International Case Competition |  Hong Kong |
University | Undergraduate | 20 teams |
| NUS-DBS International Case Competition |  Singapore |
University | Undergraduate | 12 teams |
| Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (I.C.B.C) | University | Undergraduate | Unknown teams | |
| Hult Global Case Challenge | University | Graduate | 150 teams | |
Competitions by application
| Competition | Country | Type | Level | Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Masters | University | Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate | n/a | |
| CaseIT MIS Case Competition | University | Undergraduate | 16 | |
| KPMG case competition | University | Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate | n/a | |
| Rubicon Contest | University | Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate | 24 | |
| Suitable for Business | University | Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate | 12 teams | |
| Changellenge >> | Mixed | Undergraduate | 30 | |
| KPMG case competition |  Slovakia |
University | Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate | 24 |